superfletch

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/o-s-deployment/56928-complete-guide.html It probably isn't fair on the OP for me to re-post this in "pedantic", but I couldn't help it as it is just plain bad.

Be careful about laptop users as their location wont change. You could set a system variable on all the machines and then based on the value of the variable decide whether to map the drive or not using an if statement. The way MYK-IT suggests sounds better.

Awesome!! If you do set up a CR let me know the number and I'll vote for it.

.7z will be a 7zip file so you'll probably need to uncompress it and go from there.

Brilliant point that nobody else picked up on which we should all be aware of.

Nice one Matt. As someone already said - keep posting the jokes please. Out of interest, what are you going to be doing and where (as in who for)?

That last line should read: You will need to replace "SQL Server (SIMS2008)" with the named instance running the SIMS and FMS Databases. You also need to add some lines to the start of your script that transfer logins from the master.mdf into the SIMS.mdf (I think). Assuming you are running this scheduled task on the SQL Server in question itself as "administrator" and your databases are actually called "sims" and "fms"then these lines will do the job. osql -S%computername%\sims2008 -E -n -Q"exec sims.sims.db_p_transfer_login" osql -S%computername%\sims2008 -E -n -Q"exec FMS.sims.db_p_transfer_login"

Have you tried testing with multiple student accounts rather than just one to make sure it isn't an issue with that account. Did running the office detect and repair routine turn anything up? Also is the UNC path in word definately showing the same as it is on the other Office apps (could be a slip up when you built the profile / policy for those machines)? Simple things you've probably already checked, but best have them said before you go any further... Hope you find it

So anything from the secondary breakout??

Fair enough - I didn't realise it was a friendly comment in quite that way - sincerest apologies. It did feel like more of a p155 take since it came just as we were leaving the room! As regard the age thing maybe I got the faces mixed up of who said it (or maybe not if it keeps your mate happy). I just clocked a very young looking lad as I heard the comment and maybe that is why I felt so annoyed by it. On the aggregation thing and getting messages across, I reckon MS could release an education podcast every so often with the latest info in it. Perhaps get a couple of edugeekers on board? Once again as others have said, thanks so much to everyone involved in organising this event.

Yeah the Primary Breakout was quite good. Although there were some differences in opinion about whther the EES will be good or not for smaller schools, I guess the honest answer will depend on the school. Someone made an excellent point about loads of the products on offer (not just MS ones) addressing issues at the wrong ends of the education market. The point made was that why does a secondary, HE or FE student need an ID service to seamlessly move and authenticate them from one web application or domain to another when those kids can actually remember their passwords. It's the children at the younger end and in the special schools who genuinely need this sort of product yet the schools catering for these kids are prioced out of those markets. We talked about MultiPoint Server and it's various different applications in different scenarios. There were also some really cool tools demonstrated that I hadn't seen before one was Auto Collage, which as the name suggests creates nice looking collages, automatically. As Witch says we discussed how MS gets info out to schools and tried to offer some idea of how communication can be improved as things don't seem to be working with the current aggregated model in use (LA's and RBC's). It would have been even better if some snot nosed looking lad hadn't referred to it as being "Brownies" on the way out. It's all right though, I think I saw his mum telling him off when she picked him up.

I'd go to a South or SW event if one were organised. Being further SW than most Exeter would be great for me, but Bristol would be great too.

I believe this system is still being finished, but is very very close to general release. Put it this way, you can use it for parents and carers without using it for pupils - so if you already have another VLE / CMS solution and don't want the kids to use Merlin then that's possible (although accounts for the children will need creating). You will also need to purchase a SIF agent for transferring data from your MIS into Merlins IDP (Identity Service) this should come at a price in the region of £100 - £200 per annum. Although both pupil and parent / carer accounts will be getting automatically provisioned from your MIS there will still be a good deal of setup administration to do if you don't already use Merlin (or if you do use merlin, but without SIF). This administration will involve accepting the generated accounts for pupils (and giving them sensible usernames in case you ever do choose to use Merlin for the kids), then clicking to accept that the adults identified as parents / carers of said pupils from the MIS data are indeed parents / carers and you wish them to be able to access the data for the child(ren) identified. I've seen screenshots and a live demo and it looks really quite good. The SWGfL team are all very knowledgeable and can answer any questions you may have, in addition they have kept stressing that the reson this system has taken its time coming is because they want to do it properly first time. They are very, very aware of the sensitivity of the data involved in this area, and this is very apparent at all the Merlin meetings I've been to. Hope that's some help. I'd give it a go for a year with one year group, then if it doesn't work out then it will only be the cost of a years SIF license.

Just got home after a long old drive back down to the South West. I thought today was really good - very impressed with what Office 365 will offer and was glad to have the focussed time in the breakouts. Loads of websites to go and visit now. Thanks to all involved for all the effort that must have gone into arranging it. ;)THANKS;)

I didn't say it was better than what you suggested, it's obviously less technical. Although it's old most people are are at least a little familiar with DOS. I don't know any VB, and you don't give the commands to show how to do it.

This is a .bat script, run it on a scheduled task at 1900 hrs. shutdown -s -m \\computer1 -t 300 -c "***" -f shutdown -s -m \\computer2 -t 300 -c "***" -f shutdown -s -m \\computer3 -t 300 -c "***" -f -t 300 is a timeout of 5 minutes giving users 5 minutes to shut their pc down. -c "***" allows the admin to enter a comment that appears on the target machine. If you are using shared profiles or desktops it can be worthwhile putting a delay inbetween each line, since there is no wait command built into dos then just use a ping.

Sted is right, this happens on quite a few Sherston titles, Tizzys Toybox springs to mind. I've also experienced it on XP so it isn't a W7 issue. I don't have it any more but I once wrote an autoit script that wasn't too complex which launched the application, waited until the process no longer existed then set the screen resolution back to whatever was normal on that PC. It was a dirty fix, but it worked.

All of these are Windows Utilities, but I can't check all of the links right now as I'm working from a filtered site. I'll check them tonight and correct any that are wrong... PsTools - Execute processes remotely and monitor remote machines IPScanner - Fairly predictable, (often triggers AV alerts) (There are more comprehensive ones out there but I like this one - I prefer v2 to v3) Memory Scanner - Crucial website - scans a PC for compatible memory (Useful if the PC isn't a standard make / model) Wake On LAN - Command line tool that integrates nicely with scripts WinAudit - Audits a PC for s/w, h/w, OS - supports a range of outputs. Computer Renamer - Rename a PC quickly from the command line (I add it to images to rename them b4 joining domain as I'm rubbish with sysprep) Foldersize - Scans Drives and reports sizes of folders - Sourceforge is filtered so can't check the link ATM Defraggler - Made by the same people as CCleaner - nice defrag tool with many options Edit - I also use AutoIt a lot - but I don't think it fits into this category as it needs installing and I get the feeling that this is more about stuff that can be run without an install.

Turn the firewall off and try again, if it works then you know it's definately firewall. That way you just need to find the right exceptions.

Surely it was a bit late for this? How did you manage to run your Census without already upgrading to SQL 2008? My colleague wrote the documents on the slatash dot net filepantry - without looking at them I can tell you they will be very comprehensive indeed.

That's what I meant, (and what I said about backups). If the door controller explodes you just get a new one. Easy if you aren't doing anything fancy with them, bloke come out - installs it and changes it over in the s/w, you give it a static IP. However, If you've been working on a linked up system via the API though then I guess that could mean a big rewrite?

I love where it says: "The man had collected a few items from the house clearance in Leicester and only realised afterwards he might have a missile"

I like that, nice work HT. How did it feel over your spine? I have one small tat which lies mostly on my spine and I'm thinking about having one done on my shoulder, jyst wondering how it compares?

One more vote for Paxton here, we had a guy come in and set it up on 11 doors. The school secretary finds the s/w really intuitive and she had all the passes configured in about an hour. Another great thing is any data relating to the doors is held on the door device itself so you don't need to worry about backing anything up, install the sw and it just scans the network for paxton devices. The software installed really easily (needed .net framework 3.5) and we were told to give the doors static IP's which I've done. No problems as yet and it has been in about a month. Didn't know about the API, but then again I don't know any C#

Agree with everyone who says to steer clear, not a good place to be right now. However the scale of the problems faced by LA staff will vary massively from one authority to the next, yours might not be too bad - speak to someone who is already there. LA staff are facing redundancies accross the board and Academies will have a massive impact on those in the LA supporting the education sector. As for "No pesky supervision" that is going to depend on the job you're applying for - in my experience there is plenty of "pesky supervision".